WORLDS OF THEIR OWN:
Insights into PseudoScience from Creationism to the End Times by Robert
Schadewald. Excelsior, MN: SangFroid Press, 2006. 240 pages plus
references, appendices, and bibliography. Hardcover; $21.95. ISBN: 0917939158.

The chapters
in this book, in the words of the editor, "disclose how New Testament scholars
learn from archaeologists, who are expert stratigraphers of archaeological
sites, and how archaeologists garner knowledge from New Testament scholars, who
are experts in the stratification of texts" (p. xxiii). They focus on
this question: how do archaeological discoveries help shed light on the world,
acts, and teachings of Jesus?

This book
contains lectures that archaeologists delivered in Jerusalem to celebrate the
new millennium. Some presenters came to speak directly from sites where they
were carrying on excavations. The thirty-one authors write about locations
(i.e., Bethsaida, Mount Tabor, Mount Zion), people (i.e., Pilate, Judas,
Antipas), places (i.e., cemeteries, the temple, synagogues), practices (i.e.,
exorcism, spirituality, baptism), and theology (i.e., John's Gospel, the
resurrection, the historical Jesus). The contributors come from Israel, the
Netherlands, the United States of America, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and
Switzerland.

The editor,
James H. Charlesworth, is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language
and Literature and Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at Princeton
Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. He has edited other volumes, among them
are the Old Testament: Pseudepigrapha volumes 1 and 2, Jesus'
Jewishness and Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this book, he wrote
the preface, the first chapter ("Jesus Research and Archaeology") and
conclusion ("The Historical Jesus and Biblical Archaeology: Reflections on New
Methodologies and Perspectives").

The book's
many helpful features include (1) a list of academic affiliations of all the
authors; (2) some black-and- white photographs; (3) a glossary; (4) selected
bibliography; (5) geographical, scripture, and ancient text indices; and (6)
nine pages of abbreviations for modern publications, ancient documents, ancient
writers, apocryphal writings, and pseudepigraphal writings.

Charlesworth,
in his conclusion, summarizes some findings of archaeology: (1) a vineyard,
winepress, walls, Mary's well, and towers have been found in or near Nazareth;
(2) the locations of Cana and Bethsaida may have finally been discovered; (3)
findings at Sepphoris shed light on culture and rabbis; (3) many synagogues have
been located; (4) Caesarea Maritima and Sebaste in Samaria are being excavated;
(5) light is being shed on Jerusalem, the temple, Pilate, Caiaphas, Simon of
Cyrene, and the practice of crucifixion.

No book in
the world is more studied and revered than the Bible, and the most important
person in the Bible is Jesus. This book describes the methods, results, and
implications of digging into the past, and it explains in an interesting and
informative way how this all relates to Jesus. The price of Jesus and
Archaeology seems reasonable when its length is considered. Those who might
purchase this book include professionals, libraries, churches, and interested
laypersons. I recommend they buy it.

Sleeth writes
with a convert's zeal about how he and his family gave up their wasteful
American lifestyle for what at times seems like an obsessive pursuit of
a more Earth- friendly way of life. Sleeth was a successful physician when
he heard God's call to creation stewardship. He now works full-time to
convince Christians that caring for creation should be a priority. This book
(and his website servegodsavetheplanet.org) is a distillation of what he
advocates in his ministry.

While
examples are woven into the book, it does not give a systematic account of
environmental degradations. Perhaps Sleeth assumes readers are already aware of
pollution, global warming, etc. Instead, he starts with an exhortation for
individuals to become agents of change for God's purposes. This is followed by
a chapter about why Christians should care for God's creation, providing good
answers to common questions and objections.

Most of the
chapters concern specific areas of life, using the experiences of the author and
his family to describe how we can be better stewards of creation. Topics include
excessive consumption, our need for physical work and Sabbath rest, television,
raising children, food choices, household habits, holidays, energy use,
medicine, and population. A final chapter reminds readers that all must be done
in love, and that part of loving our neighbors is caring for the planet we
all share. Useful appendices contain a personal energy audit, practical advice
regarding appliances, and a "Let it begin with me" prayer list with
suggested ways to ask God to help us change things for the better.

There is much
that is good about this book. It is written in an engaging and accessible style,
and it is full of practical advice. The author does a good job of walking the
fine line of conveying the seriousness of our problems while encouraging readers
that there is hope and that God's people can make a difference. A more
difficult line is the one between conviction and guilt; the book is so effective
(at least for this reader) in revealing our selfish, wasteful lives that some
readers might be overwhelmed by guilt. To his credit, Sleeth mostly takes
an encouraging tone rather than promoting guilt trips. Finally, unlike most
environmental books (even Christian ones), its evangelical bent is clear
throughout. Many Christians will listen to this creation-care message who would
never listen to Al Gore.

Nevertheless,
I hesitate to recommend the book because it seemed like every few pages I
noticed an erroneous statement, a sweeping unsupported assertion,
an oversimplification, or a dubious biblical interpretation. For example,
unsubstantiated assertions are made about "chemicals" in the environment
being responsible for increased cancers in humans and pets. Sleeth repeats the
nonsense that life contradicts the Second Law of Thermodynamics. He says that
the Book of Revelations predicts nuclear weapons and television.

As I was
shaking my head at this, I was reminded of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven
Life. Both books are sometimes shallow, make sweeping overstatements and
generalizations, and sometimes use Scripture in questionable ways. Then I
thought about how many people read Warren's book. Maybe Serve God, Save the
Planet is not for readers who value nuance, careful argument, and learned
exegesis. But it may well reach a mass audience, and it is the masses who will
need to change if the church is to be a positive force in creation care. If
just half the people who read The Purpose Driven Life would read this
book and be moved to live differently, the positive impact on God's Earth
would be substantial.

Mitchell was
formerly an international award-winning senior features writer at the Globe
and Mail, Canada's national newspaper. In 2000 and 2001, the World
Conservation Union and the Reuters Foundation cited her work as the best
environmental reporting in North America and Oceania. In 2000, both
organizations named her the best environmental reporter in the world. She
currently lives and writes in Toronto, Ontario, where she is working on her next
book.

Dancing at
the Dead Sea is the product of her three-year journey to several of the
world's most environmentally endangered areas. The journey begins at an
international conference on conservation in Amman on the Jordanian bank of the
Dead Sea. In a later chapter, Mitchell describes the successful reintroduction
of the Arabian oryx to the Jordanian desert. In contrast to this positive symbol
of conservation, she also documents the diminishing water levels of the Azraq
oasis and the Dead Sea due to unbridled irrigation and industry. This pattern is
repeated throughout the book as disturbing descriptions of environmental
degradation are contrasted with inspiring examples of conservation.

Examples of
environmental problems include the rampant deforestation on the island of
Madagascar, the thinning of the sea ice in the Arctic region of Canada, and the
loss of biodiversity on the Galapagos Islands. More hopeful examples of
conservation come from the country of Suriname, where about 90% of the
rainforest in the country remains intact, and from Iceland, which intends to do
away with fossil fuels in favor of harnessing geothermal energy and the energy
of hydrogen.

The book,
however, is more than just a description of a few conservation victories
mixed in with a number of environmental problems. At each location, Mitchell
introduces the reader to scientists and conservationists who are trying to
protect these environmental hotspots. She also describes the dilemmas that
people face as they utilize natural resources in ways that not only diminish
biodiversity, but also threaten the future existence of local human populations
and cultures. Mitchell raises concerns about extinction rates, global climate
change, and the worldwide exploitation of natural resources. She also raises
questions about the future viability of the human race if we continue on our
present path of population growth, overconsumption, and environmental
degradation.

The main
purpose of the book is to challenge the belief that the earth will keep
providing no matter how we stretch its means. The process of changing this "legend"
of the earth's inexhaustibility is compared to the difficulties that Charles
Darwin faced as he developed and published his ideas about evolution. Just as
the people of his day were reluctant to change their thinking about the fixity
of species and the compromised status of human beings that evolution implied, so
people today are not easily convinced that the earth's resources are finite.
Mitchell spends an entire chapter comparing the society of Darwin's day with
our own. She writes:

I am
convinced that my modem society is facing the same seismic challenge to
legend that Darwin's society faced in 1859 when he published On the Origin
of Species, that in some ways, the modern debate about ecological crisis
still revolves around the place of humanity in creation (p. 20).

She firmly
believes that just as past attitudes were changed as a result of Darwin's
publications, present attitudes can also be changed as people all over the world
come to grips with the reality of our planet's exhaustibility.

This book is
not only an ecological travelogue to some of the world's environmental
hotspots, it is also an impassioned plea for worldwide conservation and
sustainable economic development. Above all, it is a challenge to our present,
human centered way of thinking. It is a book that will be applauded and
appreciated by anyone who is already concerned about the current worldwide
ecological crisis. Hopefully it will also be read by many others who presently
do not share this concern.

Berry is a
professor emeritus of genetics at University College, London. This book contains
twenty-six essays. The core essays are updates of papers from a 2000 conference
to explore "the Christian approach to the environment" at Windsor Castle.
Berry wrote a very useful introduction in which he states that stewardship is
about caring. For some, the idea of a steward is wholly negative, suggestive of
subservience and hierarchy, absentee landlords and exploitation. This distaste
is echoed in some of the essays in this book. Other contributors seek to avoid
such negative associations by exploring alternatives: trustee, agent, companion,
priest. The authors make clear that "steward" has come to have a very
restricted meaning in public relations and much church usage. Commonly
it is nothing more than an unconscious synonym for the unavoidable
interactions between humans and the physical, biological, social, and cultural
environment that surrounds them.

Berry asks if
we can improve on this. Some writers insist that a firm theology must underlie
any ethic of stewardship while other contributors concentrate on what may be
called enlightened self-interest. Berry notes that at this point we could be
sidetracked into the range of apocalyptic enthusiasm that could lead some to
neglect environmental care"he names James Watt, the US Secretary of the
Interior in the early 1980s"but he has resisted a discussion of various forms
of premillennarianism.

Stewardship
is often used as little more than a formal response to environmental situations,
and it is often equated with asceticism and denial, or with diligent recycling.
The concept of stewardship involves much more. Several essays are concerned with
practical stewarding. Some of the contributors are devotees of stewardship;
others are less convinced for a variety of reasons. But there are common themes.
One is the recognition that stewardship is the key link between economy and
ecology which produces sustainable development.

But the
implications of stewardship extend into apologetics and soteriology. The
Anglican and other churches have extended their definition of mission to strive
to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the
earth.

Berry writes
that creation care is more than pragmatic witness and evangelistic possibility;
it is fundamental to our faith in God who is Redeemer and Sustainer as well as
Creator. Good theology and good science are essential complements. To ignore
God, claiming that stewardship is an option for the few but irrelevant to
most Christians, is to misunderstand and endanger people's purpose here
on earth. It is sin.

The book
contains many riches. I mention two chapters that I found particularly
rewarding.

1. H.
Paul Santmire contrasts the creation theology in the priestly and Yahwist
stories with those in the book of Job. He says that the Yahwist story, with its
small-scale agrarian setting, exemplifies what sensitive care for the earth
can mean. In this theological drama, the land is a character in its
own right. The human's relationship to the animals is depicted in terms
of tangible solidarity rather than intervention. Santmire notes that in the
Bible there is no doctrine of "cosmic fall" The soil remains innocent;
the divine curse rests on it because of the disobedience of humans and
because of the fruits of violence that grow from that disobedience. The
promise is that, in Christ, with the deep human fault healed and the curse
removed, humans can begin to live in Eden again. In contrast, in Job we are led
into the experience of a wilderness. We see noble wild creatures nurtured by
God, celebrated precisely because they resist human domestication. No longer is
conquering and controlling nature part of the equation for discerning human
dignity. Instead there is a complex and rich biblical theology of partnership
among God, humans, and all other creatures.

2. Murray
Rae goes further in developing a theological framework for human responsibility
for the environment. He says that humans cannot make do with a merely secular
meaning of the term stewardship or whatever; language must be filled with
attentiveness to the action of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is God
who is finally responsible for bringing the creation to its fulfillment.
Christians look forward in hope, not simply to the maintenance of this present
order, but to its transformation.

Reviewed
by Donald Nield, Associate Professor of Engineering Science, University of
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Irene van
Lippe-Biesterfeld, princess of the Netherlands, believes that humans are
alienated from nature and must rediscover their connection to the cosmos. She is
involved in ecology by managing a nature reserve. This book is the outcome of
her visits to twelve visionary thinkers who are involved in ecological
issues.

The questions
she asked the environmentalists related to how they defined nature, the
practical aspects of their love of earth, and the measures they regarded as
necessary to prevent further damage to the ecosystem. The environmentalists
think anthropocentric beliefs result in over- consumption of nonrenewable
resources. In their views, there has been an unacceptable extermination of
living things through the destruction of habitats, devastation of wetlands,
overgrazing by stock, mismanagement of water reserves, deforestation, and the
pollution of the air, rivers, and the sea.

Counteracting
these deleterious effects by humans, these ecologists believe that there is a
growing number of people who are actively engaged in lobbying governments to
bring about a change in attitude. Sometimes greed of individuals, especially
those in positions of power, forestalls their efforts.

Accompanied
by van Tijn, a journalist, the author interviewed Credo Mutwa, an oral historian
and Zulu healer of minds and bodies, who has no place for the Christian God.
Credo considers that even inanimate things have feelings and that water can be
made alive. Jane Goodall, also interviewed, emphasized the importance of
developing sustainable lifestyles and having contact with nature through
science. Her studies of chimpanzees indicate that they show emotions and have
the ability to think. Her views gained a listening ear only from the child
psychiatrists and psychologists; otherwise, her findings met with hostility
within the University. Goodall considers humans in the main unfaithful trustees
of nature, and she emphasizes the education of children in the care of
creation.

The final
interview was with Patricia Mische. Her approach is pantheistic where human
well-being is linked with the health of the earth community. Patricia thinks
religion is important and that Christianity has not separated itself from
nature. She considers love the strongest power exercised by humanity.

Whereas one
can fully support the message of this book that human well-being is linked to
the health of the earth, some of these visionary thinkers have illusions which
cannot be accessed by scientific means. However, the views of those
interviewed do support the author's premise that humans in the main have been
unfaithful trustees in their care of nature. The book will be useful to
ecologists who will be challenged in assessing different and sometimes nebulous
viewpoints.

Reviewed
by Ken Mickleson, a member of A Rocha Aotearoa, New Zealand, of Epsom,
Auckland.

This book
results from a 2003 workshop on "Christian Environmentalism With/out
Boundaries" Its ten chapters by ten different authors give practical advice,
as foreword author Ronald Sider notes, "on what we should eat, what clothes we
should wear, and even what kind of house we should live in" (p. 7). The
authors also write about Christians' relationships to energy, vegetation,
work, rest, and enjoyment. Each chapter has questions for reflection and
discussion. There is also a list of books for additional reading.

The book's
intention is to demonstrate that authentic Christian faith is not
anti-ecological, involves caring for the earth, and is demonstrated by living a
life of ecological obedience and thanksgiving to God. The authors believe that
Christians who live as God intended will experience joy, freedom, and
shalom.

Polkinghorne
hardly needs an introduction to ASA members. The former theoretical physicist
and has now been an Anglican priest for about twenty years was knighted in
1997 and awarded the Templeton Prize in 2002. He has written about twenty books
in the last twenty years aimed at a general audience mostly on the relation
between science and Christianity.

The author
describes this book as an "overview" while many of his other books offer
more detailed discussions of aspects of the science/religion topic. This book
contains no equations or figures and provides some suggestions for further
reading, including other books by Polkinghorne.

The content
of the book is indicated by the titles of the eight chapters: Fact or Opinion,
Is There Anyone There? What's Going On? Who Are We? Can a Scientist Pray? What
About Miracles? How Will It End? and Can a Scientist Believe?

In explaining
the parallel approaches to truth, Polkinghorne points out that science does not
address the "whole truth" and religion involves necessarily a "leap into
the light, not the dark," i.e., faith. Furthermore, God is not subject to
experiment.

In supporting
the idea of God, he details, as in many current books, the idea of the "impossible
universe," the need for incredible fine tuning in cosmology and biology for
our universe and humankind to appear. He quotes Paul Davies in a surprising
claim that "it may seem bizarre but, in my opinion, science offers a
surer path to God than religion" (This brings to mind Rom. 1:20.)

Polkinghorne
quotes Hawking's challenge that if the universe has "neither a beginning nor
an end then what place for a Creator?" and answers "Everyplace. As the
Ordainer and Sustainer of all that is going on" "God of the whole show"not
just the beginning" He recognizes the troubling problem of evil and the
mystery of suffering of innocent people and resigns himself to the
appreciation of this enigma by the Almighty in allowing Jesus to suffer the
ignominious end of life on this earth with profound theological meaning.

In "Who Are
We?" he presents perhaps the most prominent idea in the book, namely that "chaos,"
as understood in recent scientific studies, is a powerful tool in rebutting the
reductionist (mechanistic) view that we are merely the sum of our parts to
be completely explained by the deterministic laws of science. Instead "chaos"
with its idea of unpredictability and yet creation of orderly patterns through
collective effects, points to emergence of properties, from wetness to possibly
"consciousness" and allows God, perhaps, to interact on earth through "information
input" (A "top-down physical process" vs. the bottom-up reductionist
mode.) However, "Divine action will not be demonstrable by experiment though
it may be discerned through the intuition of faith"

Polkinghorne
points out that some of the miracles in the Bible may have scientific basis but
others are beyond science, e.g., turning water into wine. Still he finds the
testimonies of witnesses convincing. He does not reject the controversial
thesis that God may not completely know the future (which depends on actions of
agents with free will), but is confident in the resurrection of believers
because "God will remember the pattern in which we are made and recreate
us"

This book
discusses many reasons why a scientist may be led to a belief in God. The one
point of possible importance that is not given prominence by Polkinghorne is
that of religious experience and the vacuity of science as a source of
help when someone, even a brilliant scientist, is in the throes of a
profound human trauma"like illness, death, crime victim, betrayal, etc. Still
one must applaud Polkinghorne for this book and his whole life of service
to his God as scientist as well as priest.

Celia
Deane-Drummond, a professor of theology and the biological sciences at the
University of Chester in the United Kingdom, addresses the complex relationships
between religious experience and the natural sciences. She begins with a
discussion of the emotion of "wonder," and segues into the Wisdom of God,
arguing that incorporating these two can result in a deep spirituality which
brings science and theology together.

The author
has many useful insights, but her writing style is difficult to follow. The book
reads much like lectures. Many times sentences begin with "But," or "Yet,"
or "However," and she has an irritating (to me) habit of introducing a topic
and then saying "I will say more about this later" I found reading the
book, at times, quite painful; that is unfortunate because her ideas are worth
consideration. Perhaps it is the UK academic writing style; for an American
audience, it could have used a good editor.

She does well
in tying together wonder and wisdom under the term "imaginative intellect"
Focusing on the sometimes neglected human faculty of "paying attention," she
observes that elimination of any aspects of teleology from scientific "wisdom"
almost necessarily eliminates the wonder of it all. An obsessive devotion
to wisdom, she claims, is almost bound to fail as a viable worldview.

A companion
book to this, Wonder by Robert Fuller, was reviewed by Richard Ruble in PSCF
58, no. 3 (2006): 251. From that review, I conclude that Fuller's book is
probably the better of the two.

With all the
criticism above, the book is recommended for its exploration of novel ideas in
the contemporary science-theology dialog. It will remind the reader of the days
of childhood when "wonder" was a constant companion. That is not altogether
a bad attitude to take.

Reviewed
by John W. Burgeson, 36633 Road P.8, Mancos, CO 81328.

GENERAL
SCIENCES

WORLDS OF
THEIR OWN: Insights into PseudoScience from Creationism to the End Times by
Robert Schadewald. Excelsior, MN: SangFroid Press,
2006. 240 pages plus references, appendices, and bibliography. Hardcover;
$21.95. ISBN: 0917939158.

Schadewald,
who passed away in March 2000, was a science writer and former president of the
National Center for Science Education. Bob was also my friend. He spent his
career writing about various offbeat views. His articles span the range from
perpetual motion machines to creationism, the flat-earth theory, and
Velikovskisms. This book is his first and is posthumously published.

The book
covers a wide range of topics in pseudoscience, beginning with a review of the
Immanuel Velikovsky affair. In the early 1950s Velikovsky, a medical doctor,
wrote a book which attempted to explain the miracles in the Old Testament by
having the planet Venus ejected from Jupiter and then careening around the solar
system causing havoc and producing manna eaten by the Israelites.
Unfortunately, contemporary scientists suppressed the book causing Macmillan
Publishing Company to sell the bestseller's rights to another publisher. This
action made Velikovsky's book sell even better. Schadewald conducted the very
last interview with Velikovsky one week before his death.

The book then
turns to perpetual motion flim-flam men. Schadewalk begins with an April Fools'
article he wrote for Science Digest, but people took it seriously.
Becoming interested in the area, he traced the history of these machines
back into antiquity, following their development to the present. The book covers
such scams as the Keely Motor, the Jeremiah 33:3 machine, and the 1916 case
of Louis Enricht who convinced people he could run a car with water as the
fuel. The gullibility and greed of humanity shines through in this section. Many
inventors not only obtained patents on their devices; they also raked in
millions of dollars from investors before the enterprises collapsed.

The
flat-earth section is probably the most fascinating. Presenting several of the
flat-earth arguments, Schadewalk surprises his readers with how difficult it is
to answer some of their arguments. The book is worth buying and reading for
just this section. He tells of the Bedford Canal swindle in which Alfred Russell
Wallace, co-discoverer of natural selection, defended the round earth, picking
up £500 prize for showing the earth's surface was spherical, but then costing
him years of lost reputation and legal expenses. The flat-earth belief then
jumped the Atlantic, landing in Zion, Illinois, where it was against the law to
own a globe or teach children that the earth was round. The Bible, it was
said, forbade such nonsense. Schadewald brings the Christian face to face with
the fact that the flat-earth movement was a 100% Christian movement with
arguments not only brought forth from nature but also from Scripture.
In this respect, it appears that the flat-earth movement is analogous
with young-earth creationism, even leading to the teaching of the flat-earth
theory in the public schools.

Schadewald
keeps the reader interested by constantly relating anecdotes. In order to get
the flat-earth journals, Schadewald had to join the society. After he
wrote articles critical of the flat-earth view, he was thrown out of the society
for having "spherical tendencies" Some time later, however, Schadewald was
allowed back in, eventually being asked to become its president, which he
declined.

There is a
section covering young-earth creationism which compares it with the way other
advocates of pseudoscience ignore data, make up data and otherwise twist the
world to fit preconceptions.

Normally,
appendices are not worth reading. This is not the case with this book. Often
pseudoscientists claim that the future will vindicate them. They cite Alfred
Wagner's advocacy of continental drift as a case in point. Schadewald examines
this claim by comparing Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision with Wagner's
ideas of continental drift. Initially, science rejected both, but came to accept
continental drift. Schadewald explains why. Under- standing this case gives one
counter-arguments to this old chestnut in which the nut claims that the
future will be kind to him.

The book is
entertaining, well written, and full of anecdotes useful for the dinnertime
raconteur.

This book
provides a comprehensive coverage of all issues related to origins, and it also
presents a new model, called the RTB (Reasons to Believe). The purpose of this
effort is to show that the RTB model is testable and therefore acceptable
as a scientific theory. The manuscript contains a wealth of information on
the creation-evolution controversy. The only way I can describe it is to label
it as Hugh Ross's magnum opus!

In a unique
way, Hugh Ross uses a multidisciplinary approach for building the RTB model, by
factoring in phenomena from cosmology, astronomy, planetary science, geophysics,
archeology, and paleontology. These approaches are in addition to the
traditional evolutionist one from morphology, biochemistry and genetics. The
bottom line of this monumental work is to demonstrate that a scientific
model for creation can be developed and tested. To that end, Appendix E gives a
comparative analysis regarding the predictive capabilities of the RTB model, the
Naturalist model, the Young-Earth model, and the Theistic Evolution model.

The book
starts with introductory remarks on the current conflict between creation and
evolution as a clash of worldviews, methodology, and politics. Ross then
presents his major thesis which is "the uncompromising harmony between facts
of nature and the words of Scripture" The book is divided into twelve
chapters: chapters 1 and 2 describe the most publicized creation and evolution
positions, including strategies used, legal concerns, and public education;
chapter 3 compares the "explanatory success of various models for the origin
and history of the universe, Earth, life and humanity"; chapter 4 develops the
biblical foundations for the RTB creation model and brings out its
scientifically testable features; chapters 5-9 cover the latest scientific
findings about origins (universe, solar system, life, and Homo sapiens).
These are covered in great detail and the information provided is encyclopedic,
worthy of any ASA-er's library. The purpose here is to examine the RTB model
in light of the above findings; chapters 10-12 look to the future to
anticipate how the RTB model and other creation-evolution models will fare under
careful scrutiny. The goal here is to explore how one can remove or reduce
obstacles between the various creation-evolution models. The final chapter
attempts to facilitate a more productive pursuit of truth and to engage the
public in constructive dialogue on both "scientific and religious enterprises"

The book is
very well researched with extensive footnotes and references. I do have a few
concerns. Ross tends to stretch the interpretation of some scriptural verses
beyond their intended meaning. For example, Ross uses Ps. 104: 28-29 in
justifying the mass extinction of species in the animal world during the
evolution/creation process.

A second
concern is that in his desire to resolve knotty issues in creation, Ross fails
to emphasize the fact that God often works in mysterious ways which we cannot
and may never comprehend. This is especially true as Ross tackles difficult "why"
questions (see chapter 9) that continue to trouble scientists, philosophers and
theologians. Some of these concerns are the existence of parasites, deadly
microbes, cruelty in the animal world, and large scale extinctions of species.
Some people may attribute all of these to an "evil design" that attempts to
undermine God's original plan for creation.

After all is
said and done, however, I find the RTB model intriguing and salute the RTB team
for their carefully researched work, bringing together insights from
all disciplines, pertinent to the question of origins. Only time will tell
what percentage of scientists, who reject the supernatural, will be willing to
give the RTB model a fair hearing.

I recommend
this book to every PSCF reader. Even if they disagree with the model
itself, the detailed information on origins given in chapters 5-9 will serve
as a great source of readily accessible information.

"Controversies
over evolution excite every bit as much passion early in the 21st
century as they have ever done" So say Mark Noll and David Livingston and so
say we all! We have plenty of experience of the issue of origins"biblical and
scientific"causing an uproar among believers in Jesus. This is a book that I
would call "state of the art" in this controversy. The editor, Keith Miller,
a geologist, has been deeply engaged in this struggle much of his life.
Here he has recruited contributors to the discussion from all the relevant
sciences, from history and from theology. Most are ASA members. True, there are
no young earth creationists or "ID" (intelligent design) perspectives, but
it is an argument encompassing the best thoughts from the perspective of what
the book's title suggests: "evolving creation"

The
contributors range from astronomers through biochemists, biologists,
paleontologists, environmental scientists, historians, geologists, theologians,
and psychologists. Indeed, I would say that whatever questions you have had
about the origins issue in terms of science-biblical interface have been
addressed here. I must confess some of the answers strike me as very
speculative, and with some I personally disagree, but I believe they are bravely
facing every issue you could think of raising. It covers the whole of
Genesis 1-11, but primarily the creation of the universe, of life on earth,
and of human beings in the first relationships with God.

Some of this
is quite consonant with a volume of biblical studies on Genesis 1-11 by Henri
Blocher, In the Beginning (InterVarsity Press, 1984), but Perspectives
on Evolving Creation is mostly from a perspective of science, very technical
in some places, full of good illustrations and tables and references. This book
would make an ideal text for a semester or year-long course at the
university level. A beautiful feature is that interspersed between the
chapters are brief devotionals offered by the various writers of the
chapters, many of them focusing on the Psalms but with works of art,
photographs, and other opportunities for the eye (as well as the words for the
brain), giving us an invitation to lift our hearts and minds to God in the
context of what we read.

Here follow
some quotes to whet your appetite. From the excellent biblical, theological
study of the first chapters of Genesis, this from Conrad Hyers:

When we
examine the Genesis account of origins in its own terms and its own
historical context, it becomes apparent that we have something that is
considerably different from that of the natural sciences. It has a theological
agenda aimed at affirming a monotheistic reading of the cosmos and rejecting the
prevailing polytheistic reading. None of its phrasing or organization or use of
numbers corresponds to the methods and materials of the natural sciences. This
does not imply that Genesis is to be seen as unscientific or antiscientific or
even prescientific, as if superseded by better methods of understanding the
world. The materials of Genesis 1 are nonscientific; they offer a different kind
of map of the universe and our place within it (p. 32).

In his
chapter, Loren Haarsma comments on the discussions over "methodological
naturalism" and has this to say on the general principles:

Is it
possible to scientifically prove that God superseded natural laws in a
particular event? Or does science rule out any possibility of such things?
A practical understanding of what science can and cannot do should warn us
against either extreme. Scientists seek to understand puzzling events and
puzzling processes. When faced with a particular puzzling event, science can
neither prove nor disprove that natural laws were superseded. What can science
do? Science tries to build a quantitative, empirical model of the event using
its understanding of natural laws plus information about the physical conditions
before, during, and after the event (p. 84).

The following
interesting footnote responds to some of the comments of the Intelligent Design
movement writers. Terry Gray and co-chapter writer Loren Haarsma comment:

÷Whatever
might be said, good or bad, about the scientific and theological arguments of
Intelligent Design theory, we are troubled by the appropriation of the word "design"
to exclude evolution. Intelligent Design theory, the way it is typically
presented, seems to offer the following choice: either modern life forms evolved
or they were designed. That is a false choice. Christian theology says that
modern life forms were definitely designed by God, whether God used ordinary
evolution or superseded it" (p. 289, Footnote 2).

The book
concludes with two chapters dealing with evolution and original sin and with
evolution, cognitive neuroscience, and the soul. In order to be well informed,
I recommend that you read this book, pass it on to others, and prayerfully
and thoughtfully interact with the many references and arguments contained in it
to shape your own perspectives on this issue.

David Snoke
is a physicist at the University of Pittsburgh. This book is his first on
apologetics, having previously written Basic Concepts of Condensed Matter
Physics and having edited Physics and Science Fiction.

The chapters
cover the scientific case for an old earth, animal death, the balance theme in
Scripture, the Sabbath, concordistic science, Noah's flood and how to
interpret Genesis 1-2. The book is an easy read, and the author is a good
writer, explaining his concepts well. Snoke believes in an old earth but not in
evolution, which he emphatically tells his readers on several occasions.

The strength
of the book is that it is a good review of the major arguments against
the young-earth (YEC) position, but there are no truly novel arguments
presented. He raises the usual argument that YEC would make God deceptive, that
geologic features are hard to explain with a global flood, and that, biblically,
animals had to die before sin. Most of his arguments are theological rather than
scientific, and maybe this is what they need to be. One interesting
observation he makes is that YEC may take Christianity into an anti-knowledge,
anti- expert position in which anything an expert says is automatically
rejected. I fully agree with that assessment.

The major
weakness of the book lies in the major weakness of Intelligent Design (ID).
While rightly chiding the YEC to accept observational evidence in the
interpretation of Scripture, this book only allows such external data to
go so far and no further, giving an air of hypocrisy. On pages 189-90,
Snoke criticizes Setterfield's declining speed of light theory and notes that
anyone who knows physics would find the arguments "laughable" Yet, Snoke
ignores data that make his view of creation and the Flood equally
laughable.

One
unfortunate mistake is the dual claim that humankind appears in the
archaeological record merely 30 kyr years ago (it is 150 kyr) which logically
would mean that the Flood was after that time, and the claim that his local
flood killed all but eight people. These claims raise huge problems. It ignores
the existence of a religious altar at the H. erectus site of
Bilzingsleben, Germany dated at 425 kyr and the 47 kyr Neanderthal altar at
Bruniquel in which a bear was sacrificed deep in a cave where even
bears could not live. Who were these nonhuman worshipers?

Snoke also
ignores the genetic evidence for an ancient humanity. He tells the YEC not to
ignore how deceptive God would be if, on the day Adam was created, Adam
had memories of his mother and a house Adam had built earlier. Snoke also
notes that it would be equally deceptive if those first trees had tree rings.
But Snoke seems not to realize that the human genetic code is much like tree
rings, providing its own dating technique for the genome and that the genetic
history of humanity cannot fit within the 30,000 years time frame he claims.
Thus, Snoke has his own "Adamic memory" problem with an equally deceptive
God, in which God makes the human green opsin gene appear to be 5.5 million
years old when in fact it is no older than 30 kyr.

In one
physics error, Snoke argues against the global flood by claiming that the added
weight of water in a global flood would make the continents sink. Since they did
not, he claims that the YEC's flood views are wrong. However, this would be
true only if the water were piled above the continents alone. Given a flat water
surface, more water weight would actually be added over the ocean basins than on
top of the continents (hint: think of continental elevation). Telling others to
accept observational data, while not doing so oneself, creates problems when
writing apologetical books.

One of the
big disappointments was that there were actually no positive evidences of the
Bible teaching an old age. I had expected that there would be a discussion of qedem
or olam which are Hebrew words for old/ancient used to describe the
age of hills and mountains. All of the arguments were basically against YEC
theology and because of that, I would recommend this book. It can be
of help in dealing with the flaws of YEC theology and an anti-science
stance.

Domning is a
paleontologist at Howard University in Washington, DC. He begins this book with
a defense of Darwinian evolution, explaining how it works and answering fifteen
common objections to it. From this base of understanding, he deduces two
theologically relevant facts:

1. "[T]he
Adam of the Fall was not responsible for introducing physical suffering and
death into the order of nature ÷ those were well established among evolving
organisms long before his and our advent" (p. 139).

2. "[T]he
Church has long claimed to know something about our beginnings that it did not
know" (p. 190).

Scriptures
intended to teach us about original sin, he explains, have been misapplied, as
if they are statements about our historical origins.

Catholic
theologian Monika Hellwig (at Georgetown University), who died while this book
was at press, used her brief portion of the book to explain Adam's story as
myth"in the best sense of that term. "People who shape myths are not naive,"
she writes, "they are using analogical reasoning" (p. 11). She contributes a
helpful six-page background on the classic teaching on original sin.
She gives even briefer responses at the close of each of Domning's major
sections.

In the first
section, Domning cites evidence against monogenism, the view that all humanity
is descended from a single couple. In her response, Hellwig outlines
the history of how the Catholic Church became committed to this doctrine,
but how its theologians more recently came to view Adam's Fall as the story of
how each of us fails morally"and of how we enter a society already filled with
temptations.

While dealing
with original sin in the sections that follow, Domning lauds Teilhard de Chardin
and his followers for bringing evolution into theology, but notes that few
have attempted to integrate into it the doctrine of original sin. While the
popular "cultural transmission view" explains sin as the result of a sinful
human society, it fails to explain where society's sinfulness came
from. Domning's "original selfishness" model explains why we are sinful by
nature (our animal nature) and not just by imitation, thus avoiding the charge
of Pelagianism.

Domning
defines original selfishness (his preferred term) "biologically as the innate
imperative to perpetuate and benefit oneself whatever the cost to others, and
theologically as that need for salvation by Christ which is universal to all
human beings and acquired through natural generation" (p. 183). He notes that
his model fulfills both these requirements, since it excludes no one and is
transmitted through natural descent from a common ancestor. This ancestor,
however, takes us far deeper into the past than a literal Adam: it begins with
the origin of life itself.

The
universality of selfishness is explained by our common origin with all life
(since natural selection programs each organism to be self-centered), starting
with the first living thing; and its moral character is explained by the free
choice of each human since moral awareness began.

But does this
make God the author of evil? No, argues Domning, evil came into existence only
with the free choices made by morally aware, autonomous creatures. Life in the
natural world before that certainly behaved selfishly, but this was the
necessary condition to bring about those autonomous creatures. Anything other
than this evolutionary selfishness would not have been capable of producing God's
intended result in us and would not have been "good" Still, readers will
wonder if all the redness in tooth and claw was really necessary. Why not a
different system? Domning answers that a universe in which animals did not
suffer or die would be impossible under the physical laws we know. Separating
animal suffering from a good creation involves a logical contradiction.

After all,
Jesus came to join us in the reality of a suffering world for the greatest
purpose of all. And Domning reminds us of Jesus' assurance: "You will suffer
in the world. But take courage! I have overcome the world (John 16:33)"
(p. 170).

Anyone
concerned about reconciling early Genesis (and Romans 5) with a modern
understanding of paleontology will find in this book a well-reasoned solution
that deserves to be considered.

Isaak has
long been associated with the moderated Usenet discussion forum, Talk.origins,
and the TalkOrigins.org website, basic components of a twenty-year running
debate between mainstream science and creationism. The leaders of the group
find common purpose in explaining the theory of evolution, critiquing the claims
of the anti-evolution and Intelligent Design movements, and defending the
integrity of science and science education.

Isaak has
degrees in biology and computer science and additional college-level education
in physics and psychology. He has written "Five Major Misconceptions about
Evolution" (www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-misconceptions. html), "What is
Creationism?" (www.talkorigins.org/ faqs/wic.html), and "An Index to
Creationist Claims" (www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/index.html). The latter have
provided the template for this book. The Counter- Creationism Handbook is
aimed at those who need help in countering creationist claims in the sciences,
philosophy, and the Bible.

The major
sections of the book are Philosophy and Theology, Biology, Paleontology,
Geology, Astronomy and Cosmology, Physics and Mathematics, Miscellaneous
Anti-evolution, Biblical Creationism, and Other Creationism. Some 400-plus
creationist claims are rebutted under various headings within the major
sections. A thorough index takes one quickly to the pertinent material.
An introduction provides sage advice about reaching out to
anti-evolutionists one-on-one and for public venues such as school board
hearings and debates.

While the
book contests all creationisms, it is the Christian creationism based on
particular interpretations of the Bible that receives the most attention.
Isaak finds methodological naturalism to be the only "objective standard"
for the study of nature, but does not rule out the supernatural, observing
however that it "has never led anywhere" (p. 28). The ASA is not mentioned
in the index nor is PSCF used as a resource in the 50-page bibliography
except to reference the work of Glenn R. Morton.

Having said
this, does the book have value for the ASA reader? Yes. First, it offers a broad
picture of the arguments that one may encounter. Second, it deals effectively
with scientific issues. Third, it provides useful debating strategies for
various settings. At the same time, the religious and philosophical arguments
may not ring true for the Christian.

One might ask
what effect the secular effort to counter creationism has had on the
creationist movement. Counter counter-creationist websites, blogs, and
ministries continue to appear with great frequency, and the movement goes on
unperturbed by "truth" Yet, groups of scientists have joined together at
times to successfully counter attempts to include creationist materials and
points of view in public schools. The debate over the place of faith in the
marketplace whether by symbol or the written word continues.

PSCF
has long offered articles countering dubious scientific and biblical claims by
these fellow Christians with mixed results"surely the tide has not changed. Truth
seems trumped by mission. Sadly, evangelical leadership provides
little encouragement for those who would build a worldview that takes the "two
books" seriously.

The
Counter-Creationism Handbook will appear in a paperback version in 2007.
Give it a look for your personal library.

Bergmann is
professor of religious studies at the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, Trondheim, Norway. The author and editor of numerous books, he is
also a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Letters and Sciences and an
ordained minister in the Church of Sweden. This book was first published in
German in 1995. It is a part of an ecumenical series of books sponsored by the
Christian Theological Research Fellowship that are grouped under the heading Sacra
Doctrina: Christian Thought for a Postmodern Age. This series is designed to
reap the wisdom of Christian tradition and Scripture while proposing fresh
insights that are relevant for the contemporary church.

In the
preface, Bergmann describes two important influences which led to the writing of
this book. The first relates to the 1968 ecumenical movement's confession in
Uppsala, that proposes it is the world that offers the agenda for the church.
This confession, along with Jurgen Moltmann's insight into the suffering of
the Trinity in The Crucified God, fueled Bergmann's interest in
building a bridge between the environmental movement and the Christian
interpretation of life. The second influence was the writing of
the fourth-century Cappadocian theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus. Gregory's
central thesis, that love for the poor is the best criterion for the believer's
love for God, is expanded by the author to include the suffering creatures of
the present day global environmental crisis. This influence is clearly
summarized in the subtitle of the earlier German edition of this book, The
Trinitarian Cosmology of Gregory of Nazianzus in the Horizon of an Ecological
Theology of Liberation.

Two groups of
texts provide the primary materials for Bergmann's book. The first is the
written legacy of the early church theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus. The second
includes a number of monographs published in the field of systematic theology
between 1972 and 2003. All of these monographs attribute theological
significance to the ecological problems of our age. Contemporary theologians
cited by Bergmann include John Cobb, Jr.; Gunter Altner; Gerhard Liedke and
Ulrich Duchrow; Christian Link; Jurgen Moltmann; Sallie McFague; and Rosemary
Radford Reuther. Missing from this background material is any reference to the
writings of contemporary evangelical theologians. Also, missing is an in-depth
study of the biblical text and its potential contribution to the formulation of
an ecological theology.

The book is
divided into three main parts. Part one, which consists of a single chapter,
introduces the present day ecological challenge to theology and the Cappadocian
theology of Gregory of Nazianzus. Part two, with two chapters, summarizes
Gregory's doctrine of the Trinity and his vibrant pneumatology. One key
feature of Gregory's theology is his incorporation of the entire creation into
salvation history. As far as he is concerned, no part of creation goes untouched
by the Creator's work of redemption. The relationship between God's
suffering and the suffering of creation is explored and the role of the Holy
Spirit as the liberator of creation is examined in detail. Part three is
subdivided into three chapters. Chapter four examines how studies from late
antiquity and late modernity are related to the problems of ecological discourse
and to each other. Chapter five examines how the understanding of God and nature
during these two periods relates to liberation theology. In conclusion, chapter
six reflects upon the limitations and possibilities of the method of correlation
employed throughout the book. In this chapter, Bergmann attempts to show how
connections can be made between the fourth-century theology of Gregory and the
theology of a variety of contemporary theologians. His main goal is to connect
classical patristic theology and contemporary liberation theology in ways that
will further the development of an ecological theology from a Christian
perspective.

While
Bergmann goes to great lengths to connect the patristic theology of the fourth
century with the ecological theology of the twentieth century, his connections
exhibit several weak links. One problem with his approach centers upon a
difference in starting points. While the theology of Gregory of Nazianzus is
developed from a biblical foundation, the perspectives of the twentieth-century
theologians cited in the book are more heavily influenced by contemporary
science. Another problem is that Gregory never developed anything close to an
"ecological" theology. His references to justice for the poor and his belief
that all of creation shares in God's redemptive activity are extended by
Bergmann in ways that Gregory may not have intended or even contemplated.
The connections between Gregory's social understanding of the Trinity and
twentieth-century ideas regarding the sociality of nature are also rather
tenuous. While Bergmann's connections are certainly thought provoking, in the
end, they are not completely convincing.

The summary
on the back cover suggests that this book (and others like it in the Sacra
Doctrina series) will appeal to "thoughtful pastors, educated laypeople,
theological students, and scholars in a quest for faithful understanding of the
Christian message" I question whether pastors or laypeople will want to wade
through the book as its content is geared more for scholars. Anyone with a
particular interest in historical theology or the development of contemporary
ecological theology should take the time to read this book as it does contain a
wealth of information and interesting insights. Those who are not so inclined
should probably leave it for the scholars and theologians to debate.

This book
looks at the role the secular plays in Christianity. The author disdains
describing social, religious, or cultural trends. Rather, "my aim will be only
to contribute to an understanding of the place occupied by the secular
in Christian history and within a Christian understanding of society" (p.
4). The crux of this book is that "Christian tradition has a legitimate place
for the autonomy of the secular ÷ despite the perpetual undertow of what
we have become accustomed to call Žtriumphalism' in Christian political
and cultural attitudes" (p. 9).

Markus
examines the concept of the secular in the New Testament and traces its
development as Christianity emerges as a popular religion and eventually becomes
the one adopted by the Roman Empire. In early Christianity, believers saw
themselves as separate and distinct from society. However, as this new religion
eventually spread throughout the West, Christians were faced with coping with
the secular.

The
difference between the sacred and the profane, writes Markus, was understood in
the first century. The sacred related to the gods, cults, belief, practice, and
religious institution. The profane, or pagan, was what occurred outside the
religious institution, or in "the sphere of ordinary life" (p. 5). The "secular,"
identified by Christianity, was a new concept. It was what was shared by all of
society and not necessarily antagonistic to religion.

According to
Markus, Augustine of Hippo, in the fourth century, was the impetus for the idea
that there is a place for the secular in the Christian idea of the world.
While the secular was eclipsed by the spread of Christianity during the Middle
Ages, it was rehabilitated by Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council who
thought Catholicism needed to be freed from its "cultural ghetto" and see
the secular world as autonomous and co-extant with religion (p. 11). "With the
Blessed Pope John XXIII the Church has come to embrace the secular and to
acknowledge its value, its autonomy, and even, if I may add what may seem
paradoxical, its sacredness or holiness" (p. 91).

Robert A.
Markus, professor emeritus at the University of Nottingham, has also written The
End of Ancient Christianity and Gregory the Great and His World. He
has been preoccupied with the church's relation to the secular for forty
years; his erudition has produced this compact, meaty, and insightful volume.
This book will appeal to church historians, sociologists interested in religion,
lay Christians interested in the relation of their faith to society, and
theologians concerned with ecclesiology. It may also be of interest to church
leaders, namely evangelists and pastors, who seek to determine the church's
role in culture and politics.

Harris has
written a book which has caused quite a stir in the erudite and lay world. It
has appeared on the New York Times bestsellers' list, was the winner of
the 2005 PEN/ Martha Albrand Award for Nonfiction, and has been widely praised
and criticized. It is entitled The End of Faith and its subtitle
describes its content: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason.

This volume
is in the genre of Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. Like Paine, Harris
thinks religions are irrational, based on falsehoods, anti-scientific,
intolerant, and with a notable exception, contradictory. Religions "are
in perverse agreement on one point of fundamental importance, however: Žrespect'
for other faiths, or for other views of unbelievers, is not an attitude that God
endorses" (p. 13).

Harris also
thinks that the taboo on criticizing religions puts them beyond the scope of
rational discourse. That is why, he writes, the religious motive of the suicide
bomber is always discounted in favor of economic, personal, or political
ones. Technological advances, writes Harris, have made religion a threat to
humanity's survival. Harris labels as a myth the belief that religion is the sine
qua non for goodness. To summarize, Harris rejects religious claims of
inspired books, miraculous acts, incarnate messiahs, or a blissful
after-life.

Harris
complains that various religious beliefs "are all equally uncontaminated by
evidence," that exclusivity claimed by a religion "requires an encyclopedic
ignorance of history, mythology, and art," that religious myths "float
entirely free of reason and evidence," that religious faith is "a desperate
marriage of hope and ignorance" and that religious beliefs "should not
survive an elementary school education" (pp. 15-17, 21, 25). Additionally,
writes Harris, "It is time we admitted ÷ that there is no evidence that any
of our (religious) books was authored by the Creator of the universe" (p. 45).
Interestingly, even with such dramatic statements, some atheists have attacked
Harris for not being aggressive enough in his denunciation of religion,
especially spirituality.

What would
Harris substitute for religion? He explains: "It is nowhere written, however,
that human beings must be irrational ÷ Seeing this, we can begin to divest
ourselves of many of the reasons we currently have to kill one another"
(p. 43). Harris thinks moderate religionists, because they serve as a cover for
extremists, advance evil. Harris argues for a rational world view based on
science. "Science will not remain mute on spiritual and ethical questions for
long. Even now, we can see the first stirs among psychologists and
neuroscientists of what one day may become a genuinely rational approach to
these matters ÷" (p. 43).

After Harris
wrote The End of Faith, he got a lot of mail. He explains its
content:

Thousands of
people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most
hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as
Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and
forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to
be transformed by Christ's love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of
criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that
such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The
most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse (p.
vii).

His answers
to theists, mainly Christian conservatives, are contained in his
follower-up volume entitled Letter to a Christian Nation.

Christian
apologists from the earliest days of Christianity (e.g., Justin Martyr,
Tertullian) have defended Christianity against its critics, and there are many
active today (check the Internet for a long list). For believers who like
to engage in cognitive pugilism with an adversarial text, Harris's books
will provide all the material that is required. Readers may find some of Harris's
criticisms of religion right on target. More likely, however, religious readers
will find a lot to debate and many assumptions to question. For instance,
Harris thinks, considering the history of the world, religion has done far
more bad than good. At any rate, readers will have exposure to what
a contemporary, secular humanist thinks of religion, science, and the
future of humankind.

Harris, a
Stanford University graduate, has studied philosophy, religious traditions, and
spiritual disciplines. His pursuit of a doctorate in neuroscience focuses on the
neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty.

The author
intends to simulate religious behavior in a city simulated within a grid, like a
chessboard, of 44,100 squares, each square representing a household/person
(apparently, in this city each person lives in a separate house). The book
describes a series of simulations with purportedly an increasing level of
complexity.

In a simple
simulation, an existence of two groups, P and C, is assumed. For each randomly
selected square/ person, the person moves to another location if, in his
immediate neighborhood (= up to 8 squares surrounding him), the majority of the
neighbors belong to the opposite group. The new location is chosen randomly, and
the person moves to the new location only when outnumbered in his current
location and not outnumbered in the new location.

This simple
simulation indicates the problems with the entire approach. Groups P and C can
represent anything: Protestant and Catholics, Puerto Ricans and the Chinese,
potato-and-cheese consumers. The author does not justify why his simulation
should relate to religious behavior.

The author
relies heavily on random numbers in his simulations. Do people choose their
abodes by closing their eyes and throwing darts onto a city map? The use of
random numbers is defended with the statement that with them "a hint of free
will" is modeled (p. 3). However, the idea that free will can be reduced to
randomness is, to use the author's apt phrase, "faintly ridiculous" (p.
13). Also, do people try only one new location and immediately give up the quest
after detecting that they would be outnumbered in the new place? Incidentally,
total separation, to which the strategy described here leads, is not
inevitable if two columns of the simulated city are occupied by C's, then two
columns by P's, and so on, interchangeably. But such an orderly arrangement is
unlikely to emerge when random numbers are used to determine choices.

A "more
intelligible" simulation simulates proselytizing (p. 37). In one version,
initial dwellings are selected randomly and when a member of P finds a member of
C in his neighborhood, the former gets converted and becomes a member of C, but
not vice versa (p. 42). Why even discuss this simulation when it is obvious that
C's will outnumber P's in this unrealistic setting? In another version,
a new inhabitant counts the number of different denominations in his
neighborhood and converts to the most numerous (p. 49). One may wonder what this
simulation has to do with the way people accept faith in the real world. It
assumes an extreme feeble-mindedness of people since every time a new group
becomes more numerous, each person joins this group.

A small
ingredient of artificial intelligence is used in chapter 5. Each person is
simulated with a neural network with four binary inputs, four hidden units, and
a binary output. By trial and error alone, the networks adjust internal weights
so that particular inputs give output 0 or 1. It is, however, unclear what
would be a real world counterpart of a supervisor that adjusts weights in the
process of teaching a neural network.

In an "especially
ornate simulation" (p. 120), the author assumes that each person has fifteen
memory cells. The persons seek groups that have goods sought by the persons. The
persons should guess how many groups there are and which group has the desired
good. However, it is puzzling why a person who assumes that there are two groups
would seek the good from the third group. Either the assumption should be
abandoned right away after not finding the desired good in the group other than
one's own or any search should be abandoned since presumably there is no other
group that can offer the good. It is also unclear how the author generates "supernatural
numbers" to choose the group representing gods (p. 133).

The book is
largely disappointing. Simulations offered are generally so simplistic that they
can hardly be considered as shedding any light on social processes. They are
certainly enjoyable to do and provide good ideas for an introductory programming
course, but, on the whole, it is difficult to treat them as a significant
contribution to the sociology of religion.

This book
deals with affective forecasting, which is predicting how you will feel"happy
or sad"in the future. The author claims that people often make false
predictions on how they will feel. When asked how a person finds happiness, he
responds: "People have been writing books that promise to answer that question
for roughly two thousand years, and the result has been a lot of unhappy people
and a lot of dead trees" So this book is not a self-help book on achieving
happiness. It is about how well people can imagine and predict which future they
will most enjoy. And Gilbert does not take a high view of happiness,
anyway: "If someone could offer you a pill that would make you permanently
happy, you would be well advised to run fast and run far"

Gilbert gilds
his research with humor. On the finding that on successive occasions of an
experience, people find it less pleasurable, Gilbert comments: "Psychologists
call this habituation, economists call it declining marginal utility, and the
rest of us call it marriage"

Gilbert
writes that some past psychologists have been proved wrong by their contentions
that human beings are unique from (other) animals in using language or tools.
However, Gilbert has his own suggestion about humankind's uniqueness: "The
human being is the only animal that thinks about the future" And Gilbert will
defend this sentence: "Until a chimp weeps at the thought of growing old alone
÷" (p. 5). And, "There are many good things about getting older, but no
one knows what they are" (p. 196).

The author
presents many amusing and some surprising tidbits. For example, most people are
unrealistically optimistic about their futures (p. 18); cancer patients are more
realistic about their futures than are healthy folk (p. 18); conjoined twins
almost always desire to remain together (p. 30); over half of Americans, during
their lifetimes, will suffera rape, physical assault, or natural
disaster (p. 152); and the City Council of Monza, Italy, because they thought
goldfish in bowls suffered, banned them ÷ the bowls, not the goldfish (p.
171).

Gilbert, a
Harvard College professor of psychology, short-story writer, and frequently
published writer, walks to work in Cambridge, MA. David G. Myers, ASA member,
author of The Pursuit of Happiness, and an outstanding social
psychologist himself, labels Gilbert one of the most talented contemporary
social psychologists. This talent shines through in this very insightful,
interesting, and empirically researched book. It does not touch on the role
religion or Christianity plays in happiness.

This book has
received high praise from a Nobel Prize winner, the author of Freakonomics,
and the author of All Marketers Are Liars. An interesting topic,
presented from a scientific viewpoint, authored by a skillful writer, this book
will prove a worthwhile purchase. Readers will be informed, entertained, and
perhaps stimulated to action, or inaction. Whatever their reactions, they will
have better insight. If happiness is not coming down the pike, perhaps there is
some consolation in knowing why.

In the
Preface, the authors state that the measure of a people and a faith is how well
they care for those living in poverty. Therefore, "The first question to be
asked and answered before making any decision"either personal or public"is
this: ŽHow will the decision or action affect those living in poverty'"
(p. 9).

This book
examines the principles contained in "A Common Foundation: Shared Principles
for Work on Overcoming Poverty" agreed upon by thirty-four leaders from
Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu faiths in Minnesota. These leaders
committed themselves to work so that no person is forced to live in poverty.
They believe that each person has dignity and value and an inherent right to
share in things producing a healthy life including food, shelter, meaningful
work, safe communities, health care, and education (p. 19).

The Global
Policy Forum published these findings in 1999: (1) The wealth of the three
wealthiest individuals is greater than the GDP of the 48 least-developed
countries; (2) A four percent levy on the world's 225 wealthiest people would
provide essentials for those in developing countries; (3) those in
well-to-do countries, compared to those in the world's poorest 20 percent,
were 31 times better off in 1968, 61 times better off in 1996, and 82 times
better off in 1998; (4) In the USA, the wealth of the nation's top one percent
was greater than the bottom 90 percent (p. 21). These wide disparities should be
addressed so that the poor share in the world's goods, according to the stated
principles.

Additional
stats about the USA show that 37 million people are in poverty and the number is
increasing; Blacks (25%) and Hispanics (22%) have the greatest
groups in poverty; 46 million are without health insurance;
New Mexico, Mississippi, and Arkansas have 17% of their populations
living in poverty.

This book
contends that labels such as "bleeding-heart liberal" or "compassionate
conservative" are pejorative and insulting to people of faith who seek to
address poverty. "No sector, no part, no economic theory stands isolated from
the person of faith" seeking to end poverty (p. 22). While eliminating poverty
is not the sole responsibility of government, it is essential that government
play a part.

This book is
directed at those who want to become involved in ending poverty. It can be used
by individuals or groups within or among congregations. The four chapters
discuss how poverty can be dealt with by different kinds of churches in
different locations. The appendix describes what has been done and can be done
by mobilizing and engaging congregations in the work of eliminating
poverty.

The authors
are both associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and
have served as pastors. Maeker has been Dean of Students at Luther Seminary and
Rogness is bishop of the ELCA Synod of St. Paul.

AMERICAN THEOCRACY: The
Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil and Borrowed Money in the 21st
Century by Kevin Phillips. New York: Penguin Group,
2006. 394 pages, notes, index. Hardcover; $26.95. ISBN: 067003486X.

Phillips, a
political and economic commentator for Harper's Magazine, Time,
and the Los Angeles Times, is the author of thirteen books over the past
thirty years. This book makes three claims: (1) America began the Iraq war
because of oil; (2) Radical fundamentalist religion (Christian) is driving
current foreign policy; and (3) The USA is existing on borrowed money, with
future expenditures much more than are affordable. His conclusion is that
a crunch is inevitable, that current tax rates are necessarily going to
rise sharply, and perhaps even a Value Added Tax (VAT) is coming. It is somber
reading; the claims of impending bad times are well reasoned.

Phillips, a
one time Republican Party strategist, contends that every world-dominating power
has ultimately failed, sunk by a combination of global overreach, fundamentalist
religion, debt that can never be repaid, and exploited resources. This book is
not partisan, both Democratic and Republican administrations come under scrutiny
for our country's policies"or lack of them.

In Part I,
Phillips contends that the US went to war because of oil. This was not because
certain politicians wished to get rich, but because the White House genuinely
thought that without Iraq back in the oil business, the country would find
itself short. "Control energy and you control the nations," said Henry
Kissinger. The age of oil has also been the age of US hegemony and both are
collapsing, says Phillips. With global oil production peaking, and oil demands
continuing their upward trend, energy prices (and probable rationing) are
inevitable.

Radicalized
religion is Phillip's second focus. In Part II, he discusses this as a major
problem. In a land where over 60% of the population (ABC poll, February 2004)
disbelieves evolution and thinks humanity co-existed with dinosaurs, radical
theories of "the end times" are prevalent, even among some members of
Congress. America is becoming "Southernized," Phillips argues. By that
he means fundamentalist worldviews are influencing public policy. The Republican
Party is already a "church" in Texas (their 2006 platform explicitly rejects
church-state separation), and a theocratic country is one of the many
possibilities Phillips sees looming on the horizon. Using the word "evangelical"
as synonymous with "fundamentalist," he writes that evangelicals believe
that the "world is at most ten thousand years old ÷ In considering stem-
cell research ÷ depleting oil or melting ice caps ÷ (they) have at best
limited openness to any national secular dialog" (pp. 66-7).

Part III, 120
pages long, is the most frightening. We may yet solve the energy problem (not
without severe dislocations) and the fundamentalists will probably split ranks,
for fighting with one another has been their history. But Phillips sees no
solutions to the US's soaring debt; he speaks to history's "unlearned
lessons," and sees doom and gloom in the future"the near future. Every year
foreign bond and stockholders own more of our country. There will come (there
has to come) a tipping point. Today, America dominates the world. We do so on
the backs of those who came before us; we are squandering our inheritance. It is
only a matter of time until catastrophe arrives. The rich become richer while
the poor get poorer and the middle erodes. There is no happy ending.

On page 315,
discussing the erosion of America's manufacturing capability, he quotes
Randall Isaac, former vice president of IBM Technology and current ASA executive
director: "You cannot do effective R&D if you do not have the
manufacturing to insure that the R&D is actually relevant. If the United
States loses its manufacturing lead, it will lose everything else with it"
I do not recommend this book for light reading"only for serious
study.